THE CANADIAN PRESSAaron Yoon is shown in a 2006 yearbook photo from South Collegiate Institute in London, Ontario.

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — A Mauritanian official says a 24-year-old Canadian man sentenced to 18 months in prison for alleged ties to al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch has been freed.

The official, who insisted on anonymity because he was not directly responsible for the release, said Aaron Yoon would be kept under police surveillance until he was sent back to Canada. The official did not say when that would happen.

Yoon travelled to the region with two other Canadians who were implicated in a large-scale terror attack on a natural gas plant in southeastern Algeria earlier this year. He was arrested in Mauritania in December 2011.

Earlier this month, a court ordered his release after he was sentenced to 18 months in prison — the same amount of time he had already served.

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) begins its annual session in Geneva today by once again disgracing itself through the appointment of the West African country of Mauritania as its vice-president for the next year.

The UNHRC is the organization that, in the past, has cozied up to the Gaddafi and Assad regimes in Libya and Syria; that praised Sri Lanka’s human-rights record shortly after that country’s military killed more than 40,000 Tamil civilians; and that still exhibits at the entrance to its meeting hall, two pieces of art, one donated by Egypt’s Mubarak regime, the other with a plaque that reads, “A statue of Nemesis, Goddess of justice, donated by the Syrian government.”

It also appointed Alfred De Zayas as one of its leading advisors last December, despite the fact that his books on the Second World War portray Germans as victims and the Allies as perpetrators of “genocide.” De Zayas, while not denying the Holocaust himself, has nonetheless become a hero to many Holocaust deniers, and his sayings are featured on many of their websites. He has called for Israel to be expelled from the UN, while defending the ruthless Iranian regime.

And now Mauritania has been chosen by the UNHRC to help preside over worldwide human rights for the next 12 months. Mauritania, although all-but ignored by mainstream human-rights groups, is a country that allows 20% of its citizens, about 800,000 people, some as young as 10, to live as slaves.

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An estimated 27 million people worldwide still live in conditions of forced bondage, and every year at least 700,000 people are trafficked across borders and into slavery, according to figures compiled by the U.S. State Department, the International Organization for Migration and other reliable sources.

But nowhere is slavery still so systematically practiced as in Mauritania, an Islamic republic where imams often use their interpretations of Sharia law to justify forcing the darker-skinned black African Haratine minority to serve as slaves to the Arabic Moor population.

“The situation is every bit as bad as it was in apartheid South Africa, and in many ways it is worse,” Abidine Merzough, the European coordinator for the anti-slavery NGO Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania, told the fifth annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy last week.

“Officially, the Mauritanian authorities have abolished slavery on five separate occasions. But in reality, it exists exactly as before, backed up by imams and other clergy who write laws and issue fatwas justifying slavery,” said Merzough, who was born to slaves in Mauritania but is a rare example of someone who managed to escape and now lives in Germany.

“Slaves are their masters’ property, often from birth. Women slaves are allowed to be sexually abused whenever their masters want. The masters can buy or sell slaves or loan out parts of their bodies for use — arms, legs, vaginas, mouths. The slaves must obey. This is Islamic law as it exists in Mauritania today,” Merzough told the Geneva Summit, which (to their credit) was this year attended by a small number of UNHRC ambassadors from democratic countries (including Canada).

Last year I attended both the Geneva Summit and the opening session of the UN Human Rights Council. The contrast could hardly be greater. I watched the UN ambassadors arrive in chauffeur-driven Mercedes, and then congratulate themselves while ignoring human-rights abuses throughout the world. The Geneva Summit, by comparison, is put together on a very modest budget by 20 NGOs, headed by UN Watch, an organization that does such good work for human-rights issues that the UNHRC should hang its head in shame.

Mauritanian law allows masters to buy or sell slaves or loan out parts of their bodies. The slaves
must obey
— Abidine Merzough

At this year’s Geneva Summit, I moderated a panel that included Mukhtar Mai, an extraordinarily brave woman who was gang raped on the order of a tribal court in Pakistan after it was alleged (wrongly) that her brother had acted immodestly. And after the rape, instead of committing suicide (which is common after such experiences in Pakistan), she has fought a 10 year legal battle in an effort to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Other speakers at this year’s Geneva summit included dissidents, torture survivors and witnesses from Congo, Iran, Tibet, Syria, North Korea and elsewhere — as well as Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of the jailed lead singer of the Russian band Pussy Riot.

When Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and other dignitaries assemble in Geneva to open the annual session of the UNHRC today, they might want to ask why these dissidents were not invited to address them. And they might want to ask why Mauritania, instead of being held to account, has been appointed the organization’s vice-chair.

National Post

Tom Gross is a former foreign correspondent of the London Sunday Telegraph.

ALGIERS, Algeria — About 60 foreign hostages are still unaccounted for three days into a bloody siege with Islamic terrorists at a gas plant deep in the Sahara, Algeria’s state news service said Friday.

The terrorists, meanwhile, offered to trade two American hostages for terror figures jailed in the United States, according to a statement received by a Mauritanian news site that often reports news from North African extremists.

It was the latest surprising development in a hostage drama that began Wednesday when militants seized hundreds of workers from 10 nations at Algeria’s remote Ain Amenas natural gas plant. Algerian forces retaliated Thursday by storming the plant in an attempted rescue operation that killed at least four hostages and left leaders around the world expressing strong concerns about the hostages’ safety.

Algerian special forces resumed negotiating Friday with the militants holed up in the refinery, according to the Algerian news service, which cited a security source.

The report said “more than half of the 132 hostages” had been freed in the first two days, but it could not account for the remainder, saying some could be hidden throughout the sprawling desert site.

Terrorists on Friday offered to trade two American hostages for two prominent terror figures jailed in the United States: the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a Pakistani scientist convicted of shooting at two U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

The offer, according to a Mauritanian news site that frequently broadcasts dispatches from groups linked to al-Qaeda, came from Moktar Belmoktar, an extremist commander based in Mali who apparently masterminded the operation.

SITE Intel GroupThis image from video provided by the SITE Intel Group made available Thursday Jan. 17, 2013, purports to show militant militia leader Moktar Belmoktar. Algerian officials scrambled Thursday Jan. 17, 2013 for a way to end an armed standoff deep in the Sahara desert with Islamic militants who have taken dozens of foreigners hostage, turning to tribal Algerian Tuareg leaders for talks and contemplating an international force.

Algeria’s government has kept a tight grip on information, but it was clear that the militant assault that began Wednesday with an attempted bus hijacking has killed at least six people from the plant — and perhaps many more.

Workers kidnapped by the militants came from around the world – Americans, Britons, French, Norwegians, Romanians, Malaysians, Japanese, Algerians. Leaders on Friday expressed strong concerns about how Algeria was handing the situation and its apparent reluctance to communicate.

British Prime Minister David Cameron went before the House of Commons on Friday to provide an update, seeming frustrated that Britain was not told about the military operation despite having “urged we be consulted.”

Terrorized hostages from Ireland and Norway trickled out of the Ain Amenas plant, 1,300 kilometres south of Algiers, the capital. BP, which jointly operates the plant, said it had begun to evacuate employees from Algeria.

AP Photo/PABritain's Prime Minister David Cameron, centre, speaking to the House of Commons in London in this image taken from TV Friday Jan. 18, 2013, where the prime minister spoke about the kidnap situation in Algeria Friday Jan. 18, 2013.

“This is a large and complex site and they are still pursuing terrorists and possibly some of the hostages,” Cameron said. He told lawmakers the situation remained fluid and dangerous, saying “part of the threat has been eliminated in one part of the site, a threat still remains in another part.”

The U.S. government sent an unarmed surveillance drone to the BP-operated site, near the border with Libya, but it could do little more than watch Thursday’s military intervention. British intelligence and security officials were on the ground in Algeria’s capital but were not at the installation, said a British official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

A U.S. official said while some Americans escaped, other Americans were either still held or unaccounted for.

El Mokhtar Ould Sidi, editor of the Mauritanian news site ANI, said several calls on Thursday came from the kidnappers themselves giving their demands and describing the situation.

“They were clearly in a situation of war, the spokesman who contacted us was giving orders to his colleagues and you could hear the sounds of war in the background…. He threatened to kill all the hostages if the Algerian forces tried to liberate them,” he said.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn MartinU.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta speaks about the situation in Algeria, at the start of his remarks during a visit to King's College in London on Friday, Jan. 18, 2013, saying there will be "no quarter for terrorists in North Africa."

With the hostage drama entering its second day Thursday, Algerian security forces moved in, first with helicopter fire and then special forces, according to diplomats, a website close to the militants, and an Algerian security official. The government said it was forced to intervene because the militants were being stubborn and wanted to flee with the hostages.

Militants claimed 35 hostages died when the military helicopters opened fire as they were transporting hostages from the living quarters to the main factory area where other workers were being held.

The group — led by a Mali-based al-Qaeda offshoot known as the Masked Brigade — suffered losses in Thursday’s military assault, but garnered a global audience.

The terrorists made it clear that their attack was in revenge for the French intervention against Islamists who have taken over large parts of neighbouring Mali. France has encountered fierce resistance from the extremist groups in Mali and failed to persuade many Western allies to join in the actual combat.

Even violence-scarred Algerians were stunned by the brazen hostage-taking Wednesday, the biggest in northern Africa in years and the first to include Americans as targets. Mass fighting in the 1990s had largely spared the lucrative oil and gas industry that gives Algeria its economic independence and regional weight.

The official Algerian news agency said four hostages were killed in Thursday’s operation, two Britons and two Filipinos. Two others, a Briton and an Algerian, died Wednesday in the initial militant ambush on a bus ferrying foreign workers to an airport. Citing hospital officials, it said six Algerians and seven foreigners were injured.

APS said some 600 local workers were safely freed in the raid — but many of those were reportedly released the day before by the militants themselves.

One Irish hostage managed to escape: electrician Stephen McFaul, who’d worked in North Africa’s oil and natural gas fields off and on for 15 years. His family said the militants let hostages call their families to press the kidnappers’ demands.

“He phoned me at 9 o’clock to say al-Qaeda were holding him, kidnapped, and to contact the Irish government, for they wanted publicity. Nightmare, so it was. Never want to do it again. He’ll not be back! He’ll take a job here in Belfast like the rest of us,” said his mother, Marie.

Dylan, McFaul’s 13-year-old son, started crying as he talked to Ulster Television. “I feel over the moon, just really excited. I just can’t wait for him to get home,” he said.

AFP PHOTO / HO/ FAMILY ALBUMAn image taken on January 17, 2013, shows a photograph taken of a collect image issued by the family of Stephen McFaul, an Irish passport holder taken hostage by Islamist kidnappers at a gas field in Algeria, shows the latter with his son Jake. The 36-year-old Belfast man is no longer being held and is "safe and well", the Irish government said.

NOUAKCHOTT — Mauritania’s president was flown to France for medical treatment on Sunday after the Western ally against al-Qaeda was shot by soldiers in what he said was an accident.

The shooting late on Saturday set the coup-prone northwest African country on edge and President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz appealed to Mauritanians to keep calm in a televised message from his hospital bed.

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Although Mauritania has been stable politically since Abdel Aziz seized power in 2008, it lies on the fringes of the Sahara Desert where Islamist gunmen hold increasing sway.

“I want to reassure everyone about my state of health after this incident committed by error,” Abdel Aziz said from his bed. “Thanks to God, I am doing well.”

I want to reassure everyone about my state of health after this incident committed by error

He was covered in a sheet up to his neck and the extent of his wounds was not clear. Medical sources said he had been shot in the abdomen, though the government announced he had been “lightly wounded.”

The president was flown to former colonial power France on Sunday morning after undergoing an initial operation in a military hospital in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott.

The French defence ministry confirmed Aziz would receive treatment at the Percy-Clamart military hospital on the outskirts of Paris.

Abdel Aziz was wounded late on Saturday when soldiers opened fire on his car about 40 km (25 miles) from Nouakchott, the government said. He was driving through the town of Toueila, in an area where he owns a ranch.

Officials did not say what had happened to the soldiers who had opened fire on the convoy.

It was a unit of the Mauritanian army, a mobile control unit. They weren’t aware of his passage

“It was a unit of the Mauritanian army, a mobile control unit. They weren’t aware of his passage,” Foreign Minister Hamadi Ould Hamadi told Reuters on Sunday.

The streets of the capital were initially deserted as rumours spread of a military coup or of an assassination attempt against the president by Islamic militants.

But as reports of the incident spread, hundreds of residents converged on the military hospital where Abdel Aziz was being treated to show their support for the president.

Life had largely returned to normal on Sunday, with shops opening and cars returning to the streets. No additional police or military presence was visible.

ISLAMIST MENACE

As the head of one of West Africa’s more effective armies, Abel Aziz ordered military strikes against Islamist bases in neighbouring Mali in 2010 and 2011, provoking threats of revenge from the al Qaeda-linked fighters.

Those Islamist groups now occupy the northern two-thirds of Mali after hijacking a Tuareg rebellion there earlier this year and launching a rapid offensive in the wake of a military coup in the capital Bamako.

If the president had died it could have been a threat to stability within the country and in the region

The events in Mali have pushed thousands of refugees into Mauritania, placing a strain on resources and raising tensions along the two countries’ long, desert border.

While security, including more military patrols, has been beefed up to combat the threat of foreign Islamists, Abdel Aziz often travels with only a light armed escort.

“Security is too loose. That should be revised. We all must pay attention to roadblocks, patrols and military zones, especially in this time when the Sahel region is unstable,” said Mohamed Fall Ould Oumer, of the weekly newspaper La Tribune.

“If the president had died it could have been a threat to stability within the country and in the region,” he said.

Abdel Aziz was elected in 2009 after seizing power a year earlier in a coup that cut short the rule of Mauritania’s first democratically elected president

Split between black and Arab Africa, Mauritania is bigger than Turkey but has only 3.5 million people. The largely desert country produces oil from wells offshore. Its other main export industries are mining and fishing.

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — Seven people have been killed in the crash of a plane chartered by Canadian mining company Kinross Gold Corporation in Mauritania.

Steve Mitchell, a spokesman for the Canadian gold miner, said seven people were killed in the crash, including two pilots, three security personnel and two Mauritanian customs officials. None was Canadian.

An aviation official in Mauritania said the plane caught fire shortly after taking off on Thursday from an airstrip in Nouakchott, the West African nation’s capital. The pilot attempted to return to the runway but failed to reach it.

The YAK-12 Mauritanian military plane was bound for the Tasiast gold mine some 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the capital.

Kinross said the plane had been chartered to carry gold from the mine.

Witnesses told the AFP news agency that the fire brigade was urgently dispatched to put out a blaze after the crash, however journalists were being refused access to the scene.

Kinross said there was no gold on board the flight and the crash would not affect mine operations or gold shipment schedules.

The Toronto-based company extended its condolences to the families of the victims.

Kinross acquired the mine with its US$7.1-billion friendly takeover of Vancouver-based Red Back Mining Inc. in 2010.

Operations at the mine were temporarily halted last month over a labour dispute. Kinross said the dispute was resolved a few days later after representatives for both the workers and management reached an agreement. The company provided no further details.

In addition to Mauritania, Kinross has mines and projects in Canada, the United States, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Russia, and Ghana.

NOUAKCHOTT — A Mauritanian court has charged Muammar Gaddafi’s ex-spy chief, arrested two months ago and the subject of several handover demands, with illegally entering the country, an official said Monday.

Abdullah al-Senussi, feared former right hand man of the slain Libyan leader, was charged overnight for using false travel documents to illegally enter Mauritania on March 16 on a flight from Casablanca.

“He was charged and put in prison, in a cell specially prepared ahead of the trial, whose date has yet to be set,” a judicial source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Falsifying a passport is a punishable offence under Mauritanian law, according to lawyer Brahim Ould Ebetty.

Senussi had been in custody since his arrest at the Nouakchott airport, which prompted several requests for extradition from France, Libya and the International Criminal Court.

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On June 27, 2011, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Senussi saying he was an “indirect perpetrator of crimes against humanity, of murder and persecution based on political grounds” in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Benghazi was the birthplace of a revolt that started in February 2011 and eventually put an end to more than four decades of dictatorship in Libya. It led to the death of Gaddafi and arrest of several of his allies.

Libya’s new leaders have said the handover was a done deal. They want to try Senussi along with Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam before June elections.

“We have obtained an agreement from Mauritania to deliver [Abdullah] Senussi to Libya where he will receive a fair trial. No date has been decided upon but it will be very soon,” government spokesman Nasser al-Manaa said.

However Mauritania has yet to make an official announcement on the extradition.

Senussi is the target of another international arrest warrant after a Paris court sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment for involvement in the downing of a French UTA airliner over Niger in September 1989.

The plane was carrying 170 people from Brazzaville to Paris via N’Djamena.

That attack — along with the bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988 in which 270 people were killed — led to a UN-mandated air blockade of Libya in 1992.

Ambassadors from Saudi Arabia and Spain also want to question Senussi over acts committed by the Kadhafi regime.

These include the attempted assassination in 2003 of then Saudi crown prince Abdullah, who is now king, and unspecified attacks in Madrid.

Interpol issued a so-called “red notice” for Senussi on behalf of Libya “for fraud offences including embezzling public funds and misuse of power for personal benefit.”

In March a source close to the case said: “Nouakchott is not in a hurry, in this case all the norms and procedures must be respected. Mauritania will take its time.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/muammar-gaddafis-former-spy-chief-abdullah-al-senussi-charged-in-mauritania-over-forged-papers/feed0stdAbdullah al-Senussi, head of the Libyan Intelligence Service, speaks to the media in Tripoli in this August 21, 2011 file photo.Libya's former spy chief walked into trap set by French and Mauritanian authoritieshttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/libyas-former-spy-chief-walked-into-trap-set-by-french-and-mauritanian-authorities
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/libyas-former-spy-chief-walked-into-trap-set-by-french-and-mauritanian-authorities#commentsThu, 22 Mar 2012 18:32:53 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=154598

By Samia Nakhoul

LONDON — When Libya’s former spy chief flew to Mauritania last week, he was looking for a safe haven. Instead the man known as “Muammar Gaddafi’s black box,” the last of the fallen dictator’s henchmen still at large, walked into a trap set by French and Mauritanian intelligence.

Gaddafi’s head of intelligence, right-hand man and brother-in-law, Abdullah al-Senussi, was arrested in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, last week. The still murky circumstances of his capture set Libya on a collision course with France and the International Criminal Court, which both want Senussi.

Libya wants Senussi to stand trial in Tripoli for a catalogue of crimes. It sent a delegation to Mauritania but it returned without him after officials there said the legal formalities for his extradition were not complete.

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Western and Arab powers are all too aware of the secrets Senussi holds, and are anxious to deny him the opportunity to say what he knows in public and expose the Arab and Western governments that used Gaddafi to plot against their enemies.

“He is Gaddafi’s black box,” said Noman Benotman, a senior Libyan analyst at the Quilliam Foundation. “He knows all the secrets about the dirty deals, plots to kill — and even what underwear Gaddafi wore.”

Senussi, 62, believed to be held at the headquarters of the Mauritanian security service in Nouakchott, is accused of playing a central role in repression and torture under Gaddafi.

He is widely suspected of anchoring high profile conspiracies such as the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, of a Pan Am jet that killed 270 people, the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner that killed 170 people, and plots against Arab and African states, including an attempt in 2003 to assassinate Saudi crown prince Abdullah, who is now the king.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

Senussi is also believed by government officials in Libya to have details of how Libya helped to finance the election campaign that brought French President Nicolas Sarkozy to power in 2007, and of Gaddafi’s involvement with Western states.

“He is the main witness to financial corruption and deals which involve many leaders and countries, including France,” a senior Arab intelligence source said.

“He knows everything about the Lockerbie bombing, the deal that followed, the UTA, the money trail, Gaddafi’s financing of presidents and their electoral campaigns. He was part of the cobweb of financial corruption that existed under Gaddafi for 40 years,” the source said.

Benotman said Sarkozy is taking a personal interest in Senussi’s arrest, and not just because he wants to shore up his low ratings ahead of next month’s presidential election and bring to justice the man who was behind the UTA airliner bombing.

Privately, intelligence sources said, Sarkozy would like to take him into French custody to prevent a public trial in which he would reveal that Gaddafi paid 50 million euros to finance Sarkozy’s previous campaign. The funding was organized through a complex and secretive web of banks and companies.

“This is totally false,” a French diplomatic source said in response to the claim. “We must let justice take its course. There is an extradition request and justice must take its course. This is totally absurd.”

“We want Senussi to be extradited … From the moment he is brought to justice he will be able to speak … These insinuations are nothing but gossip and absurdities. We are in the realm of the conspiracy theory. It doesn’t hold up.”

In an interview with the Euronews TV channel last year, Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, said Libya contributed to Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign and demanded that the French president return the money to the Libyan people.

He said Libya had details of bank transfers and was ready to make them public in a move designed to punish Sarkozy for throwing his weight behind opposition forces then seeking to topple Gaddafi. In recent election interviews, Sarkozy has vehemently denied he received any such funding from Gaddafi.

“Sarkozy will not be able to sleep in peace until he gets Senussi into France,” said the senior Arab intelligence source.

ARAB PLOTS

But Sarkozy, the intelligence sources say, may be acting with Arab allies who would also prefer their habitual plotting against regional rivals not to become public knowledge.

Senussi had been convicted in absentia of the 1989 UTA airliner bombing, Sarkozy’s office said. Families of the victims immediately demanded he face justice in France.

“There are many countries, including Arab leaders, who are nervous about Senussi. If he says what he knows it will be a catastrophe for them. They are frightened that he would present some incriminating documents or evidence,” Benotman said.

“There are countries which conspired with Gaddafi against other neighboring countries, plotting coups, assassinations and attacks. Senussi used to tape these meetings secretly, deliver the messages and organize the plots,” he said, referring to a tape broadcast on a Syrian-based channel in which an Arab leader was heard discussing with Gaddafi a conspiracy against another Arab country.

“Some Arab and African countries entrusted Gaddafi to do their dirty work against their enemies. Senussi was from this close circle who carried out these jobs. Libya had a terrorist network that carried out plots and attacks on behalf of other Arab countries and royals,” the Arab intelligence source said.

Senussi would have details of financial and commercial deals, especially those involving defense companies, which many Western governments sought after a thaw in relations with Libya more than a decade ago, the source said.

FRANCE PLAYED KEY ROLE

“France does not want to hand him over to the Libyan authorities. France was behind enticing him to leave Mali and his entrapment,” said the intelligence source. “He was in northern Mali under the government’s protection. He was drawn to Mauritania by a tribe close to Senussi following a deal by the French and Mauritanian intelligence to lure him to his arrest.”

“A French special unit worked on his arrest, establishing contact with a Mauritanian tribe, al-Me’edani, whom Senussi trusted, financed and had given Libyan nationality. The deal was reached by persuading this family to draw Senussi to Mauritania where he was arrested.”

The source said Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, a general who toppled his predecessor in a 2008 coup, wanted to repay France, the former colonial power, for backing him after he won a 2009 election decried by rivals as rigged.

France’s decision to call him a “key partner” was vital to what eventually became his rehabilitation and which allowed the resumption of IMF programs for the country.

Benotman said Senussi along with Bashir Saleh Bashir, Gaddafi’s powerful chief of staff, who was also chairman of the Libyan African Investment Portfolio, an arm of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, and a woman, were the three key players who held the secrets, taped meetings, delivered messages and handled the financing of plots.

Libyan government officials say that Bashir – Gaddafi’s most powerful adviser for 30 years – was released from a Tripoli jail following his arrest after Gaddafi’s overthrow and later appeared in Paris and then in Niger, where he was granted a diplomatic passport and an advisory government role in Niger under pressure from France.

Bashir flew to Mauritania, where he has strong connections, to try to persuade authorities to hand Senussi over to France rather than Libya.

“Nobody knows how Bashir, who was detained in the summer was released, and who was responsible for his release,” Benotman said. “The Libyans blame each other. There are several former Gaddafi officials who had been released from jail.”

CATALOGUE OF PLOTS

Among the operations Senussi knew about, Benotman and other Arab sources say, were the financing of insurgents in Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion, and backing for Shi’ite Muslim groups in Bahrain who opposed the Sunni Al Khalifa royal family to spite Saudi Arabia, Manama’s main ally.

“Abdullah Senussi was the anchor, supervisor, facilitator, financier and executor of these plots,” said Benotman.

His last intervention was in Yemen to finance and arm the al-Ahmar tribe in fighting the then President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Saudi-backed figure who was forced out in a popular uprising last year.

A Libyan government source said the handover of Senussi would lead to “the unlocking of many doors”.

For decades, Senussi was the keeper of Gaddafi’s secrets. He instilled fear and hatred among Libyans before the Libyan dictator was toppled in August.

After the fall of Tripoli, Senussi parted from Gaddafi and escaped across the border into northern Mali. ID:nL6E8EL9N1

The International Criminal Court in The Hague indicted Senussi along with Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam last year for war crimes.

Senussi is suspected of a key role in the killing of more than 1,200 inmates at Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison in 1996. The ICC has charged Senussi and Saif al-Islam with being “indirect co-perpetrators” of murder and persecution.

France, which led Western backing for the uprising that toppled Gaddafi, said it had cooperated with Mauritania over the arrest and that it would be sending a warrant for Senussi.

“We insist that Senussi is extradited to Libya,” government spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy said. “There are demands from the ICC and France to get Senussi, but the priority is to deliver Senussi to Libya.”

Doubts have been raised as to whether Libya can successfully prosecute Senussi, but it is clear that he would be a major prize for Tripoli’s new rulers.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said the Libyan justice system “remains weak and unable to conduct effective investigations into alleged crimes”.

But Khaeri Aboshagor, senior representative of the Libyan League for Human Rights, added: “He is a very big fish, and he has a Pandora’s box inside his brain. He knows everything about Gaddafi’s rule – security and intelligence systems going back 30 years or more.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/libyas-former-spy-chief-walked-into-trap-set-by-french-and-mauritanian-authorities/feed2stdAbdullah al-Senussi, head of the Libyan Intelligence Service, speaks to the media in Tripoli in this August 21, 2011 file photo. Mauritania arrested Muammar Gaddafi's ex-spy chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, as he arrived on an overnight flight, officials said on March 17, 2012, immediately triggering a three-way race for his extradition.Former Muammar Gaddafi spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi arrested in Mauritaniahttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/former-muammar-gaddafi-spy-chief-abdullah-al-senussi-arrested-in-mauritania
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/former-muammar-gaddafi-spy-chief-abdullah-al-senussi-arrested-in-mauritania#commentsSat, 17 Mar 2012 16:18:41 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=152888

By Laurent Prieur and Taha Zargoun

NOUAKCHOTT/TRIPOLI — Mauritania arrested Muammar Gaddafi’s ex-spy chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, as he arrived on an overnight flight, officials said on Saturday, immediately triggering a three-way race for his extradition.

Senussi, who for decades before the late dictator’s fall inspired fear and hatred in ordinary Libyans, is sought by the Hague-based International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity during last year’s conflict.

But Libya’s new rulers insisted he would have a fair trial there. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said France helped in the arrest and also wanted him extradited to face justice there, citing his alleged role in the 1989 bombing of an airliner over Niger in which 54 French nationals died.

“Today we confirm the news of the arrest of Abdullah al-Senussi,” Libyan government spokesman Nasser al-Manee told a news conference in Tripoli.

“He was arrested this morning in Nouakchott airport and there was a young man with him. We think it is his son,” he said, confirming a Mauritanian state news agency report earlier that Senussi had been arrested with a false Malian passport arriving from Casablanca, Morocco.

France, which led Western backing for the popular uprising that toppled Gaddafi, said it had cooperated with Mauritanian authorities over the arrest and that it would send an arrest warrant to Mauritania “in the next few hours”.

A statement from Sarkozy’s office noted that Senussi had been sentenced in absentia for the 1989 bombing of a UTA airliner, in which a total 170 people were killed. Families of the victims immediately demanded he face justice in France.

“For the time being, there is an ICC arrest warrant for him, and the court requests it to be implemented. This remains valid, unless the ICC judges decide otherwise,” ICC spokesman Fadi El-Abdallah said.

However Mauritania is not a signatory to the Rome Statute governing the ICC and Libya’s government spokesman Manee also confirmed it had sought the extradition of Senussi, the last key figure of Gaddafi’s regime still at large.

“The Libyan foreign ministry is in touch with Mauritania about the procedure. The Libyan government is ready to receive Abdullah al-Senussi … and give him a fair trial in Libya,” he said.

The Mauritanian government made no comment on the arrest beyond the report of its official news agency. The Casablanca flight normally arrives at Nouakchott just before midnight but airport workers questioned by Reuters said they had not been aware of anything unusual.

“GADDAFI’S BLACK BOX”

Senussi is suspected of a key role in the killing of more than 1,200 inmates at Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison in 1996. It was the arrest of a lawyer for victims’ relatives that sparked Libya’s Arab Spring revolt in February last year.

The ICC has charged Senussi and Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam as being “indirect co-perpetrators” of murder and persecution.

But Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, president of the families association for the UTA bombing, said they counted on France to ensure Senussi faced justice for the attack.

“We never lost hope that those responsible for this attack, the most deadly that has hit France, would face justice,” he said in a statement.

“Senussi is Gaddafi’s black box, he has a lot of information,” Tripoli resident Mustafa Jhyma said. “He has blood on his hands he should be brought here and tried in Libya.”

“This is a big moment for Libyans. I wish that he had been arrested here,” another resident Abdullah al-Mory said.

Saif al-Islam was captured disguised as a Bedouin in the Sahara in November is awaiting trial in Libya on rape and murder charges. Libya’s National Transitional Council says he will get a fair hearing but his supporters want him sent to the Hague.

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, an army general who was toppled his predecessor in a 2008 coup, won election in a 2009 vote decried by rivals as rigged.

Yet France has hailed him as a “key partner” and he went on to play a leading role in the awkward African diplomacy over Libya that finally led to the continent recognizing the National Transitional Council as its new leaders.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/former-muammar-gaddafi-spy-chief-abdullah-al-senussi-arrested-in-mauritania/feed2stdFormer Head of Libyan intelligence under the regime of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Abdullah al-Senussi, stands in Tripoli on June 22, 2011. Senussi was arrested in Nouakchott on March 17, 2012 on an International Criminal Court issued arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.Canadian special forces mentor Mali’s militaryhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-special-forces-mentor-malis-military
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-special-forces-mentor-malis-military#commentsSat, 03 Dec 2011 06:05:20 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=115757

By David Pugliese

Canadian special forces troops from Petawawa, Ont., have been sent to Africa to provide training to Mali’s military, which is in the midst of a war against al-Qaeda insurgents.

The members of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) are not involved in any fighting, nor do they accompany Malian troops into battle.

But the Canadians are providing training in basic soldiering, including communications, planning, first aid and providing medical aid and support to civilian populations.

Defence analysts say such training is needed, as Mali and other countries in the region try to counter the growing threat from al-Qaeda and armed gangs.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, operates from bases in northern Mali and is believed to be behind the recent kidnappings of five European tourists and the murder of a sixth.

“This is exactly the place we should be in terms of trying to develop a counter-terrorism capacity in the Sahel and in North Africa,” said Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, head of the Ottawa-based Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. “This is a natural fit for us.”

Other western nations are providing training to militaries in other countries in the region as part of the international effort to combat AQIM.

The Canadian Special Operations Regiment sent one small team this summer to northern Mali to provide instruction for that country’s special forces. Another team is currently in the capital city of Bamako providing counter-terrorism skills training and officer training.

The teams number fewer than 15 soldiers.

AQIM traces its roots to Islamic insurgents fighting the Algerian government. The insurgents have since become associated with al-Qaeda and have branched out to conduct attacks in other countries in the region, as well as kidnapping westerners.

Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were held by AQIM after being kidnapped in December 2008. They were released 130 days later amid claims by government officials in Mali that four AQIM detainees were set free in return.

AQIM helps finance its operations through kidnappings and weapons and drug smuggling.

The recent kidnappings have significantly hurt Mali’s tourism trade, particularly at Timbuktu, once a popular travel destination for adventurers. Mali’s government recently chartered a plane to take about 20 tourists out of Timbuktu, while various governments are warning their citizens to stay out of the region.

Mali has also sent its soldiers to join French commandos in the hunt for two French men who are among those kidnapped.

Earlier this year, the Mauritanian army announced it had killed three AQIM insurgents who had planned to assassinate Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

In early January, AQIM was in the news after two French men were executed during an attempted rescue mission by troops from France and Niger. They had been kidnapped by gunmen in Niamey, Niger.

Fowler has said Canadians should be concerned about AQIM. It is the largest of the al-Qaeda “franchises,” he notes, and could directly affect Canada’s business and foreign development interests in the region.

During his captivity, Fowler said AQIM made it clear to him that not only did they despise what they called the “infidel occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan,” but that they had the same view of the United Nations and aid workers in the region.

All such individuals, according to them, are legitimate targets, Fowler was told.

In 2008, AQIM in Algeria used a car bomb in an attack on a bus carrying employees of the Quebec engineering company SNC Lavalin. Twelve of the firm’s Algerian employees were killed and 15 wounded.

One of AQIM’s most significant attacks involved the 2007 bombing of the United Nations office in Algiers, which killed 17 staff and at least 14 other people.

The deployment of Canadian special ops to Mali is expected to be an ongoing mission, with small teams moving in and out of the country whenever it is determined that Malian forces need such training, Thompson said.

It is similar to another training regime the regiment has undertaken in Jamaica, where it instructs that country’s counter-terrorism troops, he added.

In 2009, the Citizen reported that CSOR helped train the Jamaican counter-terrorism team that stormed a hijacked CanJet airliner in Montego Bay and captured a mentally troubled gunman without firing a shot. The hijacker had earlier allowed 159 Canadian passengers and two crew members to leave the chartered aircraft. Members of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment did not take part in the raid.

CSOR was created in 2006 to help support the Ottawa-based counter-terrorism unit, Joint Task Force Two, as well as to conduct its own missions. Its soldiers have undertaken operations in Afghanistan, but the details of those missions are secret.

CSOR trained Malian special forces earlier this year. In February and March, about 15 CSOR members took part in Exercise Flintlock in Senegal. That U.S.-led training event saw CSOR members paired with Malian troops, instructing them in small-unit tactics and other military skills.

In addition, the exercise focused on improving the sharing of information and increasing co-ordination between the various countries.

Other countries involved in Flintlock included Spain, France, The Netherlands and Germany, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Nigeria and Senegal.

Canadian special forces will also take part in the Flintlock exercise to be held in 2012, this time in Mali, Thompson said.